During the Galactic Civil War between the Galactic Empire and the Rebel Alliance, the Twi'lek remained in Jabba's service. At some point between the Battle of Yavin and Battle of Hoth, Fortuna contacted the Tatooinian mercenarySaponza and his partner in the name of Jabba. The two men had reacted violently to the presence of Jabba's henchmen around Saponza's homestead, killing six of them. Fortuna let the two mercenaries know they had made an enemy of his Hutt master. Some time later, Jabba's henchmen razed Saponza's estate to the ground in retaliation, and the majordomo contacted Saponza once again to gloat over his misfortune and warn him that Jabba's revenge was not over.[8]

Fortuna serving alongside Jabba at the palace during the Galactic Civil War.

Later in the war, Fortuna greeted two droid visitors to his master's palace. The two mechanical units, called C-3PO and R2-D2, claimed that they had a gift for the Hutt. The majordomo demanded that they hand over that gift to him so he could bring it to Jabba himself, but the droids answered that their instructions were to give it only to the crime lord himself. Fortuna relented, and led the droids into the throne room, where they delivered a holographic message from their owner, the Rebel hero and fledgling JediLuke Skywalker. In the message, Skywalker asked to bargain for the life of his friend Han Solo, whom Jabba detained, offering C-3PO and R2-D2 in exchange.[5]

Fortuna was present when PrincessLeia Organa arrived under the disguise of notorious bounty hunterBoushh along with Han Solo's longtime friend Chewbacca, demanding that Solo be released under the threat of a thermal detonator, and also witnessed her capture when she attempted to free Solo herself. When Luke Skywalker eventually arrived, Fortuna admitted him into the throne room, despite having been given explicit instructions not to do so until after Jabba had finished his nap.[5] Fortuna was influenced by Skywalker's mind trick, though he was not as weak-minded as some of Jabba's other guards. Skywalker only succeeded in his mind trick by finding and exploiting Fortuna's weak point, his strong loyalty to his master, Jabba.[9]

After Skywalker killed Jabba's petRancor, he was imprisoned and sentenced to death, with Jabba wanting him executed at the Great Pit of Carkoon. Fortuna accompanied Jabba and many of his palace denizens to the pit, though he was killed after Skywalker, Organa, Solo and Lando Calrissian managed to escape custody and destroy Jabba's personalSail barge.[3]

In earlier drafts of Return of the Jedi, Fortuna's title was the 'High Beeser of Hoth', and his original design sketches depicted him as a wizened old human man sporting a dark cloak and a tall hat. References to this title and design, however, were left out from the finished version of the film.[11]

The makeup process that Michael Carter needed to perform to create the custom of Bib Fortuna took over eight hours to first transform Carter into the Twi'lek advisor. By the end of Carter's five-week shoot, make-up artist Nick Dudman had streamlined the process down to 58 minutes. Removing the make-up took another 25 minutes.[11]

While Fortuna's language is never actually spoken in Jedi, several scenes in the film showed Fortuna speaking something which can be interpreted as a twisted form of English, suggesting that he spoke a heavy dialect of Galactic Basic.